A clearinghouse of news and events about historic Route 66, the Mother Road.

Old license plates turned into art

While surfing the Net for Mother Road-related stuff, I stumbled upon this Talk Market video of California artist Aaron Foster hawking a Route 66 shield made of old license plates.

It turns out that Foster doesn’t make just road shields. He’s made peace signs, maps of the continental U.S. and states, and even portraits of Bob Dylan entirely out of old license plates. He counts Stephen Colbert, Luke Wilson and Dennis Quaid as customers.

According to Foster’s bio, I draws inspiration from fold memories of road trips during his childhood:

“I always wonder about the history of the license plates I use, what roads they may have traveled down and where they may be headed next,” Aaron says. “Like the cars they once belonged to, I hope my artwork will take fantastic journeys in the lives of their owners and always remind them of life’s eternal sense of whimsy and adventure.”

The artwork in a screen shot shown above costs $1,200, so Foster’s stuff doesn’t come cheap. But the craftsmanship is there, and I’m a bit surprised no one has thought of creating art from license plates before.